Recent media has been heavily influenced by efforts at apology. We have been witness to various Hollywood sorry, News Journalist sorry and Former Presidential Aide sorry. The responses to these received apologies has been mixed. In the Mandt system we had to offer our own sorry recently following the premature emailing of news of a system upgrade that was not quite ready to go.
I have quoted Alexander Pope (To Err is Human) previously and in the Mandt System we teach in our material on ‘Building Health Conflict Resolution’ that forgiveness is much easier when we have insight into what the individual is and was trying to achieve, their intentions and motivation are important factors. What we have also leaned over time is that waiting to apologize is never a good strategy. Whether the wait is to pick the right moment, to see just how upset the other party is going to be, or simply to see if you will be found out are never the best strategies.
As a business, we try and swiftly offer our ‘Mea Culpa’ and in most cases, receive the forgiveness of our partners and customers. Particularly if we make visible efforts not to repeat this same behavior in the future.
Swift and authentic are the watchwords…
Simon – CEO
